2011/03/23

random bits of farcical daily ephemera

the video plays. martha rosler is dissing vogue. she is repeatedly saying: LUXURY. GLAMOUR. HAVE IT ALL ALL ALL.

GIRL feels affirmed by rosler in her so-called "feminist" appetence. subtly she is trying to denounce the suspected subliminal misogyny and all too male performance of BOY who is pacing through the room like a tiger, smoking, drinking whiskey and listening to male music.

BOY
i can´t listen to this. i´ve been working all day.

GIRL feels strong emotions stirring up in her. she has been working all day too (allthough she works at home) and cleaning up the boy´s mess, washing his clothes, cooking food, staying up for him, massaging him and devoting time to write him ambitious letters. she feels existentially estranged by her sudden devotion to obsequious, submissive behaviour and even though she has a slightly masochistic streak and an ability to enjoy the weights of appropriated responsibility and endure suffering which she seems to believe she must bear in order to redeem her historic guilt of being a person who has no real troubles in life, she is starting to get angry. angry about her self-inflicted symbolic, all too clichéd role she hates and angry about the supposed complacent behaviour of BOY who (so she thinks) does not feel responsible for the run of events in the relationship and feels the world must take him as he is and not have to change. GIRL feels self-pity about supposedly having to submit to BOY´s way of life which to her is just coming home from work everyday with the monotony of a pendulum and smoking into the flat until it is stifling and stuffy and not making efforts or time to dwell in happy jauntiness in places with decent waters or niceness in the air. instead she feels he is acting evasive and like a cowboy from a western. GIRL prefers french, talkative, intellectually stimulating art house films.
she starts steaming.
she turns martha rosler´s pedantic dissing off and goes into her room, closing the door behind her.

BOY notices that GIRL has left the room.

BOY
so what happens at the end of the rosler video?

GIRL
nothing
!

BOY gets angry because he feels he has worked all day and it is the middle of the night and GIRL has no right to be angry with him because he only has 6 more hours of sleep so he must be treated nicely.
he gets more angry thinking this and about the respectlessness of GIRL who is depriving him of a pleasant evening and a good night's sleep.

BOY
thank you for dinner
!

he gets out the guest mattress and sets it up in the living room.

BOY
good night.

GIRL is meanwhile absolutely furious. she walks into the living room.

GIRL
why don´t you sleep in there for good, huh?!

BOY
well so i will
!

GIRL
good
!

BOY
in fact, i better just move out for good
!

GIRL
great
!

BOY and GIRL sleep in different rooms.
half an hour passes.
GIRL gets up and sneaks into BOY´s bed.
BOY embraces GIRL and kisses her.
they talk about blissful things and listen to each other attentively.
they make love.
they get up together and walk back into the bed room.
they sleep closely entangled.

their situation is hopeless and doomed by the unspoken mutual expectations of their different concepts of the adequate social performance of the opposite gender.
even though they know this, they cannot really change.
they take it with a bit of humor, but only a bit.

music sets in from above. it is god playing the flute to an italian melody.
grapes fall from the sky.
the animals dance in circles.